Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Visual Ecologies And Language In Digital Environments: Narratives From First-Year Composition Students In Multimodal Learning, Elizabeth Escobedo Salazar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The expansion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) developed new perceptions of learning, communication processes, shaped university students' new practices and has brought about significant changes in social dynamics. Images and visual language have become central to the way humans communicate, communication processes have changed, and the composition and creation of arguments have changes. In this context, the use of multiple screens (Multiscreens) has led to multitasking, but additionally in digital contexts where students are hyper-connected. They do their homework while on social media, texting, creating videos, using a new app, or watching a movie on YouTube or Netflix. This …

The Alchemy Of Respect In The First-Year Composition Classroom, Raphael Ivan Reyes Juarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this research, I wanted to understand how respect in the First-Year Composition classroom was understood, applied, and negotiated by undergraduate students. Also, I proposed a concept called the alchemy of respect, which describes the transformations, addition of value to students' ideas, and the refinement of their abilities in the classroom. The study relied on three theoretical approaches: virtue ethics by John Duffy, community literacy by Linda Flower, and rhetoric of respect by Tiffany Rousculp. I found important concepts in their work, such as the analysis of morals in the decisions people make, the construction of communities across differences, and …

Retoriando "La Neta": Cosechando Testimonios Del Campo Y Desahogos Laborales As Regenerative Rhetoric Pathways For Raza Obrer@ Performing La Talacha In Marginalized Laboral Spaces, Ramiro De Anda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Emic, phenomenological, and interdisciplinary, this study draws on and seeks to bring the fields of Sociopsychology and Rhetoric and Writing Studies into conversation to address the potential intracultural cognitive bias of raza obrer@ (RO), by raza non-obrer@ (RNO), throughout the Borderland (the El Paso/Juarez Region) through the strategic application of Regenerative Rhetoric.

In this dissertation, I examine testimonios del campo (personal narratives from laboral spaces) and desahogos laborales (emotional laboral releases) of RO performing la talacha (arduous blue-collar work) within marginalized labor spaces utilizing Regenerative Rhetoric reparative discourse/dialectic strategies that spur sentipensamiento en la sudoracion (sensing and thinking within the …

Rhetorical Hermeneutics After The Posthuman Turn, Michael Noricks

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation revisits Steven Mailloux's (1989) concept of rhetorical hermeneutics, according to which persuasion always conditions our interpretive practices. Seeking to bring Mailloux's insights into conversation with rhetorical theory's posthuman turn, my inquiry begins with the following questions: How might posthuman theories of meaning-making allow us to extend or reimagine rhetoric's relation to interpretation? How might recourse to rhetorical hermeneutics help us understand posthuman rhetoric? Can we indeed theorize a posthuman rhetorical hermeneutics? If so, what does it entail? What are its affordances? What are its contexts? How does it affect our understanding of rhetorical situations and the artifacts produced …

The Flexible Pathways Model Of Writing Assessment: A Plan For Equity And Agency In The Writing Classroom, Matthew Varel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project is a qualitative study in which I seek to understand how my new model of writing assessment, The Flexible Pathways Model, or FPM, functions when piloted in three First-Year Writing classrooms at a border and Hispanic-Serving Institution. This research builds on the work of composition scholars Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff, Elbow and Jane Danielewicz, Asao B. Inoue, Ellen Carillo, and Edward White as well as education scholar Benjamin Bloom. The model also incorporates concepts from Universal Design scholarship of Tara Wood, Stephen Dolmage, and Anne-Marie Womack. In the FPM, students learn about four different methods of writing …

“Don’T Bring Your Feminism Here!”: The African Hair Braiding Salon As A Rhetorically Charged Space For Feminist Activism, Efe Plange

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project extends scholarship on Black beauty and hair care spaces in the US as rhetorically charged for various forms of activism. It specifically explores the nature of work, conversations and feminist ways of being among a group of braiders working together in an African hair braiding salon to legitimize the African hair braiding salon as a site with unique contributions to this body of work. Grounded in Feminist Geo-criticism and Conversational Rhetoric, the study seeks to make contributions that are relevant to the field of Rhetoric and more specifically the sub-field of feminist rhetorics, African and non-Western feminist rhetorics, …

Not Plato's Closet: The Dialectic Of Embodied Counterstory Through Fashion On The Us/Mexico Border, Brita M. Arrington

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is best understood as a journey about identity that took place over more than eight years. The journey was an exploration that began in one frame of mind and ended in a very different place. I fully anticipated this research to reflect the racial tensions surrounding my participants who are predominantly Latine students at UTEP, a "Hispanic serving" institution on the US/Mexico border, but we ended up a place more deeply personal to them. From a sample of 2000 FYC students and their instructors, 65 participants engaged in taking a survey about their dress practices, and 4 of …

The Lack Of Representation Of Mexican Women In Films, Lizbeth Garcia Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Representation in film lacks the meaningful exposure of Mexican women, the lack of roles available tend to rely on the stereotypes of Mexicans therefore excluding room for Mexican women to be represented authentically. In this paper I discuss the lack of representation that Mexican women have in films, identifying that in roles of superheroes, especially women of color do not compare to the many white superhero films. To discuss representation of Mexicans in film, I used The Perfect Game (2009) and McFarland, USA (2015), films that share meaningful representation of Mexicans. While also using examples of representation in superhero films …

New Materialism, Agential Realism, And The Veteran-As-Patient Experience: Virtual Healthcare Space In Action, Luciana Maria Herman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Veterans often access healthcare services through the Veterans Affairs (VA) website, though not all veterans have the same experiences or success rates. This study sought to understand the nature of the veteran-as-patient experience accessing healthcare via www.va.gov. The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the rhetoricity (i.e., situational and contextual dependence and propensity to affect action) of virtual healthcare space and how it impacts patient participation for veterans seeking healthcare through the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare website. Through a mixed-methods study, I learned how www.va.gov functions rhetorically as a non-human actor, posing challenges to and facilitating usersâ?? navigation …

Re-Rhetoricizing Global Souths Contrapuntally: Borderless Transnational Feminist Design Justice, Bibhushana Poudyal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I intend this multimodal dissertation to function as a hypertextual and intertextual documentation of theories, practices, examples, methods, digital, and multimodal techniques for re-writing and re-rhetoricizing the differently situated Global Souths from the ground-up. I acknowledge the Global South as not only those geographies previously known as the Third World but also those spaces and communities within the Global North undergoing various forms of colonial, racist, neoliberal, and heteropatriarchal exploitations. Transnational feminist solidarities put the intersectional analysis of gender construction at the heart of its bottom-up resistance against global capitalism, environmental injustice, corporate violence, and imperialism. My dissertation includes several …

Rhetorical Conversations: Race, Class, And Gender In The Works Of Jacqueline Jones Royster And Shirley Wilson Logan, Tanya Robertson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project is an examination of Jacqueline Jones Royster and Shirley Wilson Logan as knowledge-makers in the field of rhetoric and composition. There is a large gap in research on the contemporary African American women scholars who act as knowledge makers of rhetorical theory and rhetorical pedagogy. There is circularity in the notion that as Royster and Logan examine the history of the fieldâ??African American rhetorical practices, feministic rhetorical practices, English language studies and literacy, and classroom practicesâ??they are, themselves, having an impact on the field.

Teaching About Teaching: A Philosophy Of Critical Literacy Through Phenomenological Ethics And Rhetorical Practices, Corina Lerma

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a phenomenological approach to developing an alternative teaching curriculum for a first-year writing course anchored in rhetorical practices, but reflecting upon my experiences and understandings of phenomenological ethics and philosophy, which I believe can help envision the classroom differently and provides relevant theories to help develop more ethically aware rhetorical practices for first-year composition students. A phenomenological ethical approach that is grounded in experience, embraces ambiguity as an access point, and makes a call to responsibility and problematizes the ideas associated decontextualized and prescriptive teaching practices in higher education foregrounds the ethical implications and responsibilities we hold …

Digital Literacy Readiness Of First-Year Composition Students, Stephen Jantuah Boakye

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This is an inquiry into the digital literacy readiness of students of First-Year Composition (FYC). Using mixed methods, an online survey and interviews, the study maps out the digital literacy skills of FYC students and accounts for the people and places that contributed to the students' acquisition of those skills. As theoretical frameworks, the study used Eshet-Alkalai's (2002) digital literacy framework to account for the spectrum of students' functional digital literacy skills; Brandt's (1998) literacy sponsorship to scrutinize the persons who contributed to studentâ??s learning; and Hawisher and Selfe's (2004) technological gateways to make sense of the places that student …

Smartphones As The Tools For South Asian International Students To Navigate Academic And Non-Academic Sites In The U.S., Suresh Lohani

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation is invested in investigating how south Asian students from a Hispanic serving institution situated on a U.S. Mexico border use smartphone technologies to enhance their navigation of everyday sites in the U.S. This would primarily look at how South Asian international students from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan make use of smartphones to navigate different physical and virtual spaces, both academic and non-academic, to grapple with various complexities of their U.S. lives. The dissertation examines their user experiences and localization practices as they strive to acclimate to the U.S. setting, which to them is both physically and culturally …

Rethinking Metaphor In The Rhetoric Of Alzheimer's Disease, Evelyn Saru Jimmy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the metaphors that early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use to make meaning of their experiences living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). To complicate the study, I also compare whether early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use the same metaphors with those who serve as caregiver to late-stage AD patients. This research project is situated within the overlap fields of Disability Studies (Dolmage, 2006; Lewiecki-Welson, 2003; Yergeau, 2014; Kerschbaum, 2014), Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (Segal, 1997: Price, 2011; Molloy, 2015) Rhetoric of Mental Health (Chrisman, 2008; Uttapha, 2017, Reynold, 2008), and Technical Communication (Meloncon, 2014). Following the principles of …

Zapatista Maya Literacies And Decolonial Civic Pedagogies, Juan Moisés García-Rentería

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Zapatista Maya Literacies and Decolonial Civic Pedagogies evaluates an educational outreach project led by an Indigenous grass roots mobilization in the high plateau of central México, the Zapatista movement. Using retrospective narrative inquiry and theoretically informed perspectives, this dissertation shows that the program of the Zapatista escuelita, Spanish for “little school,” is rooted in the Maya educational paradigm of nojptesel-p’ijubtasel, a cultural and political process of socialization at the heart of contemporary Maya peasant families. The research focus of this study offers rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies two interrelated points of insight tied to the overall Maya conception of the …

Implementing Mindfulness-Based Interventions In The First-Year Composition Classroom As An Embodied Multimodality, Patricia Flores Hutson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

AbstractMindfulness is rapidly increasing its popularity amongst instructors and administrators in higher education (Bush, 2011; Egras, 2015; Egras and Hadars, 2019; Wenger, 2019). The simplicity of mindfulness makes it an inclusive practice that can be performed by every individual. Further, it is time and cost effective as it only requires a couple of minutes of class time. Studies focusing on implementing mindfulness specifically in writing and composition classes are scarce (Wenger, 2019; Consilio & Kennedy, 2019). This dissertation hopes to add to the growing research of mindfulness in higher education, specifically in writing classes, by exploring the ways in which …

Reference Management Software In The Classroom: Student Awareness, Knowledge, And Usage, Javier Cortez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research project examines the University of Texas at El Paso undergraduate students' general awareness, knowledge, and usage of reference management software (RMS). Moreover, an important aim of the project is to compare incoming and first-year college students (freshmen and sophomores) relationship to RMS against upper-level undergraduates (juniors and seniors). The project consisted of three phases, with a lecture on RMS and a pre-and post-lecture survey bookending the project. The principal investigator recruited 150 students from two different courses within the Rhetoric and Writing Studies program at UTEP. Six classes were surveyed: four sections of RWS 1301 and two sections …

Constructing Meaning Through Textual And Visual Elements In The First-Year Composition Classroom, Sebastian Ezequiel Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Inspired by methods of meaning-making in comic books, this thesis answers the question of how First-Year Composition students make meaning out of textual and visual elements to understand the concepts of authorship and composition. The thesis begins with considering definitions of textual and visual elements in the context of how they are used as learning materials when paired together or when sharing characteristics. Following these definitions is a collection of scholarly examples about how visual elements have been used by students as rhetorical objects to aid in their understanding of course concepts. Teacher research was the chosen methodology for this …

Centering Silence: Graduate Student Instructors Negotiating Quiet In The Writing Classroom, Natalie Elise Taylor

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This IRB-approved project is a feminist qualitative study in which I seek to understand graduate student instructors' past and present, student and teacher, experiences with classroom silence. This research builds on the work of Mary Reda (Between Speaking and Silence), who, in interviewing quiet students about their reasons for being silent, sought to disrupt the overwhelmingly negative stories about classroom silence and quiet students that circulate amongst instructors. By having conversations with graduate student instructors about their relationship to student silence and their own silences, I further Reda's disruption. I am also influenced by Cheryl Glenn's positioning of silence as …

The Rhetorical Relationship Between 911 Call Takers And 911 Callers In Police Emergency Response Operations, Nadia Hamilton Morales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this project, I interrogated the rhetorical relationship between 911 Call Takers and 911 callers in Garland, Texas in order to evalulate the quality of 911 emergency information transfer and its impact on 911 event final outcomes. I compiled a three-part data set that included transcriptions of 27 911 call audio recordings, 27 Computer Aided Dispatch Event Chronology Reports, and 27 Police/Incident Reports. My data set was specific to the following 911 event classifications: Disturbance/Weapon in Progress, Disturbance/Weapon Involved, Shooting, and Stabbing. My data sample came from 911 calls under these classifications made during the month of August 2020. Through …

Rewriting The Graduate Experience: A Study Of The Writing Experiences Of University Of Texas At El Paso Graduate Students Across Disciplines, Jennifer L. Wilhite

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Graduate writing can manifest as a barrier to successful and timely degree completion as writing is the primary modality in which graduate programs use to evaluate depth of learning and quality of knowledge created. Native language status, inexperience with advanced academic genres, time away from the academy, and socialization struggles are factors that can aggravate writing challenges. The purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand the graduate writing experiences of twelve women returning to the academy. The study asks if writing manifests as a barrier to completing their graduate programs, ascertains what kinds of graduate-level writing supports they …

Writing Inside And Outside The Rhetoric Of Containment: An Analysis Of Writing Strategies In First Semester Students Transitioning To The First Year College Composition Classroom, Brenda R. Gallardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Based on Bowden’s (1993) notion of containment, this study analyzes how containment—as well as other pedagogical restrictions and limitations—was manifested in the high-school-to-college transition of first year student writers. This study addresses the following questions of inquiry: How do participants’ experiences in high school affect them as writers in college?; What practices and strategies do students in the first year composition classroom apply to overcome containment in the college writing classroom?; and, How can instructors use pedagogy to overcome containment? This dissertation applies a qualitative design to gather data via interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Via grounded theory, data gathered …

The Rhetorical Mediator: Understanding Agency In Indigenous Translation And Interpretation Through Indigenous Approaches To Ux, Nora Karina Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 2018, I became involved in a collaborative community-based project to co-organize an event with the purpose of collecting resources to help in the professionalization efforts of Indigenous translators and interpreters. Drawing on Indigenous and decolonial theories, this interdisciplinary study examines the work done during this event through a user experience (UX) research lens that analyzes the various ways in which Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) and Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can better support Indigenous language practices. The colonization of the Americas brought a layer of issues that continue to affect the way in which Indigenous communities conduct their …

Motivation And The Young Writer: Reimagining John Dewey's Theory Of Experience, Billy Cryer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Issues of motivation remain a perennial topic among teachers of English Language Arts and first-year college composition courses. While modern evidence-based research in educational psychology has yielded fruitful avenues for harnessing motivation in writing instruction, in recent decades, industrious composition scholars have also turned to history for insights on composition pedagogy. In this study, I also embark on a historical excavation to glean from our composition forebears regarding motivation in writing instruction. In particular, I examine how the educational writings of John Dewey were translated into the English classroom during the Progressive Era. More specifically, I seek to recover how …

The Role Of Translation In Multilingual User Experience, Tetyana Zhyvotovska

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Examining the intersections of technical communication, user experience, and translation, this study focused on the contexts of a user experience (UX) research center as a site where these intersections occurred and on practices of multilingual users while encountering translated information. In order to explore translation practices in relation to UX and cover the gap in understanding multilingual UX, the study examined how multilingual users worked with translated content, how they acted and reacted to it, and what they experienced during this process. Based on the existing scholarship in translation and usability studies in technical communication, this Dissertation undertook empirical research …

Understanding The Digital Lives Of Transnational Students: A Case Study, Chowaing Chagra Belekeh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The proliferation and the fast-paced evolution of digital information communication technologies (ICTs) in contemporary times have arguably raised concern for us to comprehend what we do with these technologies and what these technologies do for us. The experience of engaging these technologies may not necessarily be the same for everyone—especially students who come from around the world to attain post-graduate degrees in the United States. This research focused on understanding the digital lives, choices, and experiences of transnational students who navigate and negotiate geopolitical borders and boundaries (physical)– in their quest for education. Using a case study analysis and collecting …

Graduate School Application Accessibility For International Students, Estefania Castillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The graduate school application is a time consuming, yet important, process that can often be complicated for students. However, this process is made even more complicated for international students who often face extra steps and other obstacles when applying to graduate programs in the US. Following my own experience of applying to a master's program as an international student, I set out to further explore how international students experienced and navigated this process. This research project explored the graduate school application process through the experiences of international students that were shared in testimonios through platicas, or open and friendly conversations. …

Virtual Agency: A Hermeneutic Examination Of The Network And Actors Within The Composition Classroom, Ronald Dean Straight

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores the visible and invisible rhetorical choices made in, around, and through the composition classroom and its community of practice, students, faculty, technologies, staff, and other undiscovered actors, through Actor Network Theory and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The discoveries will better situate the impact of identities and actancy within composed, hybrid worlds. Students, society, the world is now collectively connected and able to communicate, acquire knowledge, and interact on a virtual world stage. The exigence for this dissertation's exploration is that Moore, et al. (2016) concluded that students did not make a connection between the technology they have access …

Ingo Websites, Image Circulation, And Visual Representations Of Development In African Countries: Exploring Local Perceptions, Ruby Pappoe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project critically examines the visual and digital representations of African countries on Savethechildren.org, Oxfam.org, Mamahope.org, and Waterislife.com, using Ethnographic Content Analysis (ECA), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and focus group interviews. Grounded in interdisciplinary conversations within rhetoric and composition, intercultural technical communication, postcolonial studies, and development studies, this project reveals how inequalities of the past continue to exist in both visual and digital forms on international NGO websites. It shows that although these organizations seek to promote development and social change in low- and middle-income communities in Africa, the online content they use not only engender but keep in constant …